Deadly blast rocks busy market in Russia's Vladikavkaz

Deadly blast rocks busy market in Russia's Vladikavkaz

17 people have been killed by a powerful car bomb attack in the central market of the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz. Over 100 others were injured in an attack investigators are treating as terrorism. Police say another bomb has been found at the gates of the market, and the area has been evacuated. The emergencies ministry is sending a plane with aid and medical help for the injured. The President of the republic is currently at the site to assess the damage.

The Earth Doesn’t Care

The Earth Doesn’t Care

About what is done to or for it.

  by George F. Will

NASA-Corbis

The cover of The American Scholar quarterly carries an impertinent assertion: “The Earth Doesn’t Care if You Drive a Hybrid.” The essay inside is titled “What the Earth Knows.” What it knows, according to Robert B. Laughlin, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics, is this: What humans do to, and ostensibly for, the earth does not matter in the long run, and the long run is what matters to the earth. We must, Laughlin says, think about the earth’s past in terms of geologic time.

For example: The world’s total precipitation in a year is about one meter—“the height of a golden retriever.” About 200 meters—the height of the Hoover Dam—have fallen on earth since the Industrial Revolution. Since the Ice Age ended, enough rain has fallen to fill all the oceans four times; since the dinosaurs died, rainfall has been sufficient to fill the oceans 20,000 times. Yet the amount of water on earth probably hasn’t changed significantly over geologic time.

Damaging this old earth is, Laughlin says, “easier to imagine than it is to accomplish.” There have been mass volcanic explosions, meteor impacts, “and all manner of other abuses greater than anything people could inflict, and it’s still here. It’s a survivor.”

Laughlin acknowledges that “a lot of responsible people” are worried about atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. This has, he says, “the potential” to modify the weather by raising average temperatures several degrees centigrade and that governments have taken “significant, although ineffective,” steps to slow the warming. “On the scales of time relevant to itself, the earth doesn’t care about any of these governments or their legislation.”


Buy a hybrid, turn off your air conditioner, unplug your refrigerator, yank your phone charger from the wall socket—such actions will “leave the end result exactly the same.” Someday, all the fossil fuels that used to be in the ground will be burned. After that, in about a millennium, the earth will dissolve most of the resulting carbon dioxide into the oceans. (The oceans have dissolved in them “40 times more carbon than the atmosphere contains, a total of 30 trillion tons, or 30 times the world’s coal reserves.”) The dissolving will leave the concentration in the atmosphere only slightly higher than today’s. Then “over tens of millennia, or perhaps hundreds” the earth will transfer the excess carbon dioxide into its rocks, “eventually returning levels in the sea and air to what they were before humans arrived on the scene.” This will take an eternity as humans reckon, but a blink in geologic time.

It seems, Laughlin says, that “something, presumably a geologic regulatory process, fixed the world’s carbon dioxide levels before humans arrived” with their SUVs and computers. Some scientists argue that “the photosynthetic machinery of plants seems optimized” to certain carbon dioxide levels. But “most models, even pessimistic ones,” envision “a thousand-year carbon dioxide pulse followed by glacially slow decay back to the pre-civilization situation.”

Laughlin believes that humans can “do damage persisting for geologic time” by “biodiversity loss”—extinctions that are, unlike carbon dioxide excesses, permanent. The earth did not reverse the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today extinctions result mostly from human population pressures—habitat destruction, pesticides, etc.—but “slowing man-made extinctions in a meaningful way would require drastically reducing the world’s human population.” Which will not happen.

There is something like a pathology of climatology. To avoid mixing fact and speculation, earth scientists are, Laughlin says, “ultraconservative,” meaning they focus on the present and the immediate future: “[They] go to extraordinary lengths to prove by means of measurement that the globe is warming now, the ocean is acidifying now, fossil fuel is being exhausted now, and so forth, even though these things are self-evident in geologic time.”


Climate change over geologic time is, Laughlin says, something the earth has done “on its own without asking anyone’s permission or explaining itself.” People can cause climate change, but major glacial episodes have occurred “at regular intervals of 100,000 years,” always “a slow, steady cooling followed by abrupt warming back to conditions similar to today’s.”

Six million years ago the Mediterranean dried up. Ninety million years ago there were alligators in the Arctic. Three hundred million years ago Northern Europe was a desert and coal formed in Antarctica. “One thing we know for sure,” Laughlin says about these convulsions, “is that people weren’t involved.”

Congress to be told of 60-billion US-Saudi arms deal

Congress to be told of 60-billion US-Saudi arms deal

WASHINGTON (AFP) – In the largest US arms deal ever, the administration of US President Barack Obama is ready to notify Congress of plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to 60 billion dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The newspaper said the administration was also in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.

The administration sees the sale as part of a broader policy aimed at shoring up Arab allies against Iran, the report said.

The 60 billion dollars in fighter jets and helicopters is the top-line amount requested by the Saudis, even though the kingdom is likely to commit initially to buying only about half that amount, the paper said.

File photo shows F-15 warplanes flying over the Saudi capital Riyadh. US President Barack Obama's administration will soon notify Congress of plans to offer advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia in a massive deal worth up to 60 billion dollars, congressional sources said Monday (AFP/File/Hassan Ammar)

In its notification to Congress, expected to be submitted this week or next, the administration will authorize the Saudis to buy as many as 84 new F-15 fighters, upgrade 70 more, and purchase three types of helicopters -- 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds, The Journal noted, citing unnamed officials.

The notification will set off a congressional review. Lawmakers could push for changes, try to impose conditions or block the deal altogether, though that is not expected, the paper said.

Earlier media reports said that to assuage Israel's concerns, the Obama administration has decided not to offer Saudi Arabia so-called standoff systems, which are advanced long-range weapons that can be attached to F-15s for use in offensive operations against land- and sea-based targets.

Top national storylines to watch: Week 2

Top national storylines to watch: Week 2

By Andrea Adelson

You heard from all the conference bloggers, now let us take a look at the biggest stories to watch around the country in Week 2:

1. Can “Monster Saturday” live up to the hype? With Miami-Ohio State, Notre Dame-Michigan, Florida State-Oklahoma and Penn State-Alabama headlining one enormously huge day, this certainly has the potential to be one of the best college football weekends in recent memory. Here’s hoping each game is competitive and we don’t end up with a bunch of duds.


2. Will the good vibes go sour in Ann Arbor or South Bend? There was much anticipation last week over Brian Kelly’s debut at Notre Dame and Rich Rodriguez starting the season on the hot seat at Michigan. Both coaches won, and hopes shot up higher. Kelly doesn’t have as much on the line as Rodriguez because he is only in his second game at Notre Dame. But you can bet Irish fans want to see a more wide-open offensive attack, while Wolverines fans want all Denard Robinson, all the time. Whoever loses will most certainly face withering scrutiny from a fan base that wants to win now.

DeMarco Murray is fourth in the country with 208 rushing yards.

3. How does the Florida State defense stop DeMarco Murray? Anticipation is high for the Stoops brothers matchup, but the onus is on FSU defensive coordinator Mark to stop DeMarco Murray. Last week against Utah State, Murray ran for 208 yards and two touchdowns. Samford wasn’t much of an early test, so this game is going to be a huge measuring stick to see how far the defense has come in just a few months.





4. How much is revenge really going to be a factor in the Miami-Ohio State game? Revenge has been a big theme among former players, who have talked about nothing but that since the summer. But you can bet the bigger theme for the current team is another R-word: respect. Players see this as a statement game, a way to show the country the Hurricanes program is back.


5. Can the bad snaps be snapped? Several teams across the country struggled with their snaps in Week 1. Woes plagued North Carolina, Oregon State, Virginia Tech but most notably Florida, which had 13 bad exchanges between Mike Pouncey and John Brantley. We’ll see whether the bad snaps were a result of first-week kinks or if this continues to be an issue that plagues teams.


6. Do Alabama fans bite their tongues? We already know about Joe Pa vs. Nick Saban, the history with Bear Bryant, and a freshman quarterback going into Tuscaloosa as the starting quarterback for the Nittany Lions. Will the fans heed Saban’s warning and hold back their boos when Penn State is introduced? Incidentally, Bryant would have turned 97 on Saturday.


7. How do Ole Miss and Kansas rebound from FCS losses? The Rebels have a far better chance of following up their embarrassing overtime loss to Jacksonville State with a win than Kansas does. Ole Miss goes to Tulane, one of the worst teams in the country last season. But Kansas has to play No. 15 Georgia Tech with a new quarterback and revamped offensive line. Coach Turner Gill announced Jordan Webb would start over Kale Pick on Saturday. Both played in the loss to North Dakota State last week.


8. How does Georgia freshman quarterback Aaron Murray handle a tough South Carolina defense? As SEC fans will tell you, the Gamecocks have had one of the best defenses in the league for the last few years. So will they be able to rattle the freshman quarterback making his first start on the road – especially with top target A.J. Green out? The games in this series have been pretty tight -- in the last nine years, seven have been decided by a touchdown or less.


9. Early conference play opens. This can either be good or bad depending on your point of view. Good if you think you can catch your opponent off guard since they don’t know much about you. Bad if you think your opponent can catch you off guard. The ACC, Conference USA, Pac-10 SEC, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt all have conference games in Week 2.


10. Can Tennessee slow down the Oregon offense? Putting 72 points up on New Mexico was certainly unexpected for the Ducks. But they also made a statement -- they are much more than just Jeremiah Masoli, who is no longer on the team. What does Oregon do for an encore?

Christians in Gaza Fear for Their Lives as Muslims Burn Bibles and Destroy Crosses

Christians in Gaza Fear for Their Lives as Muslims Burn Bibles and Destroy Crosses

by Kimberly West

After defeating their rivals in Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, Muslim extremists are focusing their attacks on Christians in Gaza City. Christians in Gaza City have issued an appeal to the international community and a plea for protection against the increased attacks by Muslim extremists.

Father Manuel Musallem, head of Gaza's Latin church, told the AP that Muslims have ransacked, burned and looted a school and convent that are part of the Gaza Strip's small Romany Catholic community. He told the AP that crosses were broken, damage was done to a statue of Jesus, and at the Rosary Sister School and nearby convent, prayer books were burned.

Gunmen used the roof of the school during the fighting, and the convent was "desecrated," Mussalem told the AP.

"Nothing happens by mistake these days," he said.

Father Musalam additionally told The Jerusalem Post that the Muslim gunmen used rocket-propeled grenades (RPGs) to blow through the doors of the church and school, before burning Bibles and destroying every cross they could get their hands on.

Catholic Online reports that the heads of Christian churches in the Holy Land have urged both sides to put aside their weapons, noting that the infighting diverted international attention from the national goal of Palestinian independence.

"This domestic fighting where brother draws his weapon against brother is detrimental to all the aspirations of achieving security and stability for the Palestinian people," they said. "In the name of the one and only God as well as in the name of each devastated Palestinian, many of whom are still dying, we urge our brothers in the Fatah and Hamas movements to listen to the voice of reason, truth and wisdom."

One young woman told the Catholic News Service that she was concerned the Islamic extremists would "enforce a strict dress code, forcing women to wear veils and robes." One Christian teenager spoke to the Catholic News Service on the condition that her name not be used. She said the days of fighting had been "very difficult" but they were "OK now."

"We all hope it will be better, but it will never ever be good with Hamas," she said.


Approximately 2,500 Christians live in Gaza.


CBN Reports--


Leaders of the Christian community in the Strip expressed deep concern over the fate of the Christians living under Hamas. They said most of them wanted to leave Gaza out of fear for their lives.

[Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas condemned the attack as barbaric and despicable and blamed Hamas militiamen.

'The torching of the church is one of the fruits of the bloody coup that Hamas staged in the Gaza Strip,' he said.

Several Christian institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been targeted by masked gunmen over the past few months.


Sources:


Gaza's Christians fear for their lives, The Jerusalem Post, June 18, 2007, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1181813061916 (Christians, Muslims, Islam, Palestine, Hamas, Israel, Terror, Terrorism, Jihad, Gaza)


Catholic compound ransacked in Gaza, The Associated Press, June 18, 2007, http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/base/international-38/118216269043620.xml&storylist=international (Christians, Muslims, Islam, Palestine, Hamas, Israel, Terror, Terrorism, Jihad, Gaza)


Israel Today, Hamas turns on Gaza Christians, June 18, 2007, http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13149 (Christians, Muslims, Islam, Palestine, Hamas, Israel, Terror, Terrorism, Jihad, Gaza)


Christians in Gaza Strip express concern about their future, Catholic News Service, June 18, 2007, http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=24422 (Christians, Muslims, Islam, Palestine, Hamas, Israel, Terror, Terrorism, Jihad, Gaza)


Praying for Gaza, CBN News, June 18, 2007, http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/178934.aspx (Christians, Muslims, Islam, Palestine, Hamas, Israel, Terror, Terrorism, Jihad, Gaza

Al-Jazeera TV & Glenn Beck on "Hezbollah in Mexico"

Al-Jazeera TV & Glenn Beck on "Hezbollah in Mexico"

Glenn Beck on a new type of violence taking place at the Mexico/US border.

A video by Kuwaiti Professor Abdallah Al-Nafisi which aired on Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar), February 2, 2009 is shown halfway through Beck's presentation.

Professor Abdallah Al-Nafisi :

"Four pounds of anthrax in a suitcase this big carried by a fighter through tunnels from Mexico into the US, are guaranteed to kill 330,000 Americans within a single hour, if it is properly spread in population centers there. What a horrifying idea. 9/11 will be small change in comparison. Am I right? There is no need for airplanes, conspiracies, timings, and so on. One person with the courage to carry four pounds of anthrax will go to the White House lawn and will spread this "confetti" all over them and then will do these cries of joy. It will turn into a real "celebration".

Iran Arms Itself and Warns That if Attacked It Will Respond With Global Attack

Iran Arms Itself and Warns That if Attacked It Will Respond With Global Attack

Pressured by the United Nations (UN) and world powers because of its nuclear energy program, the revolutionary government of Iran has put into operation an atomic plant, and showed the world that they have an unmanned long range combat aircraft and warned the United States and Israel that it would trigger a global war should they be attacked by another country.

Using the language of apocalyptic war, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad promised a response "on a planetary scale" if his country is attacked. "Our options will have no limits, and will involve the whole planet," warned the Iranian president.

A day after putting into operation the first atomic plant in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed the world their first unmanned long-range combat aircraft, developed and manufactured entirely within the country.

Called the Drone, the unmanned aerial vehicle is able to perform long-distance bombing against targets on the ground flying at high speed, piloted and commanded remotely by the military in distant locations from the aircraft and target to be reached.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the presentation of the plane a day after inaugurating the Bushehr nuclear plant, built by Russia and aimed at generating energy.

According to Iranian journalists in February, Iran inaugurated a production line of two types of aircraft capable of bombing and reconnaissance. Before showing the Drone, the Iranian defense minister said his country was ready to unveil a project of "great importance" and that Iran's defense capability has reached a point that they do not need any help from other countries.

Unmanned aircraft are resources more and more used by armed forces worldwide, especially by the United States. However, critics of the weapon say that pilots and commanders of the operations, which are thousands of kilometers away while commanding the aircraft by remote control, are unable to correctly judge whether there is a need for a bombing a given target .

One day before presenting to the world the unmanned long range reconnaissance bomber, Iran launched its first atomic plant at Bushehr, in the south of the country on the shores of the Persian Gulf. It was built by Russian engineers, according information from Rosatom, the Russian nuclear company.

The director of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, and the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kirienko, attended the official opening ceremony of the plant, approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The governments of Iran and Russia ensure that the Bushehr plant will be designed solely to generate electricity, and its facilities may not be used for military purposes. Salehi said that it is "historic" and "unforgettable" for Iran, and thanked Russia for its cooperation in the construction of the the plant and in the transfer of nuclear technology, according to Russian news agencies.

"Despite all the pressures and sanctions imposed by Western countries, we are witnessing the beginning of work on the biggest symbol of Iranian peaceful nuclear activities," Salehi said at the ceremony that put into operation the atomic plant in Iran.

The 82 tons of Russian nuclear fuel were transported to the chamber of the reactor core, which has a thousand megawatts of power. "From now on, the reactor is a nuclear power plant," said the Russian Sergei Kirienko.

Kirienko explained that the uranium fuel rods are loaded into the reactor in the coming weeks, and that the plant will begin generating electricity by the end of this year, several months earlier than planned initially.

The German company Siemens began work on the plant in 1974, but had to suspend the project after the explosion of the Iranian revolution in 1979. The Bushehr project is unique and has no analogues in the world. Its works began in 1974, and experts were able to build a plant on old foundations and equipment used by the German company more than 30 years ago.

The Russian corporation Atom Stroy Export resumed construction after signing a contract with Iran in February 1998, but since then the project suffered numerous delays due to suspicions of the international community about the existence of an Iranian military nuclear program.

Faced with criticism from the United States and Israel, Rosatom insists that the two phases of the nuclear cycle of the power plant, which can be used for both civilian and military purposes, take place on Russian territory.

This is the uranium enrichment and recycling of spent nuclear fuel for the power station, with additional written assurances from Iran that the fuel will be used exclusively in the central location for the generation of electricity. Moreover, Moscow and Tehran signed an additional protocol on the return to Russia of spent nuclear fuel.

Using a language of apocalyptic war, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad promised a response "on a planetary scale" if his country is attacked. "Our options have no limits, and will cover the whole planet," said the Iranian president, in response to a question asked by journalists about what would be the reaction from Tehran to an external attack.

"I believe that some individuals think about attacking Iran, in particular within the Zionist entity (Israel), but they know that Iran is an indestructible wall and I do not think their masters, the Americans, will allow them to do it," said Ahmadinejad. President Ahmadinejad defended, on the other hand, the resumption of the initiative of Brazil and Turkey on an exchange of enriched uranium.

Iran has put its nuclear power station in operation and says it needs enriched uranium to fuel future power plants and is counting on one day being able to produce 20,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear sources. Meanwhile, world powers suspect Iran wants to equip itself with the atomic bomb, hiding behind its civilian nuclear program, despite their repeated denials.

The United States and Israel regularly say that they do not exclude a possible attack against Iran to put an end to its controversial nuclear program. The West suspects that Iran, despite repeated denials, is trying to produce an atomic bomb, making use of its civilian nuclear program.


ANTONIO CARLOS LACERDA

Pravda Ru BRAZIL


Translated from the Portuguese version by:

Lisa KARPOVA


PRAVDA.Ru

Lisa Karpova

50 Cent Calls In Hot 97 & Speaks On New Album, Jay-Z, Kanye, Shyne, Etc.

50 Cent Calls In Hot 97 & Speaks On New Album, Jay-Z, Kanye, Shyne, Etc.

 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3